What's that Bubble we're in?

Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster309 Regent StreetLONDONW1B 2UW

Start Time:

12 Mar 2013 - 13:00

End Time:

12 Mar 2013 - 14:00

A Public lecture presented by: Mandy Bailey (Keele)

Our Sun is surrounded by a hot low gas density region that extends for about 100 parsecs in the plane of the Galaxy and hundreds of parsecs vertically, it is called The Local Bubble. What caused it? How old is it? How do we know it's there? How did we get in it? What else is in the Local Bubble and what surrounds it? To try to answer the last of these questions a study of the absorption of the mysterious Diffuse Interstellar Bands is being used to try and map the walls of the Local Bubble and find any cloudlets of gas that exist in there – could these cloudlets pose a problem to our Solar System?

Mandy Bailey is a PhD student at Keele University studying the Diffuse Interstellar Medium using absorption in the Diffuse Interstellar Bands. She has been the Publicity Officer for the Society for Popular Astronomy since 2005 and Chair of the Shropshire Astronomical Society since 2009. During this time she has given a number of talks to astronomical societies and schools throughout the UK. In May 2011 Mandy was elected to the Council of the RAS.